Jigsaw

The Next Morning, Short Compound, Orlando:

The next morning Dan was the first one up at barely the crack of dawn. He had spent a restless night, worrying over what to do about Jed. He gave a slight gasp of dismay as he noticed Jed still in the recliner, in almost the same position they had left him in the night before.

Damn! He thought to himself. This has gone way beyond my experience in child psych. How am I gonna handle this one? As he thought, an idea slowly began to taking shape in his mind....

---

Michaelson's House of Décor, Lakeland Plaza, Orlando, later that day:

"Thanks for bringing us, Dad," said Jake. "Some new nature posters will be an immense help to my T'hy'la in learning more of Earth."

"You two are sounding more and more alike," said Allen with a smile. "That comment sounds as much like Xain as it does you."

"It is pleasing to hear your praise of my T'hy'la," Xain said thoughtfully.

"Zane!" said the salesgirl, causing a puzzled expression to pass across the two humans' faces. "You may not remember me, but I recognize you from your visit here a week or two ago with Antonio."

"I am ... pleased ... to be remembered," Xain said formally. "We have come to acquire different views of the planet Earth than we had procured on our previous visit."

"I will be happy to help," said the salesgirl, matching Xain's formality. "But I have another reason to speak with you, too. This may sound strange, but I knew Antonio when I was a little girl."

"I am aware of Antonio's unusual genetics," Xain said hesitantly, referring to the fact that Antonio aged at only a quarter of the normal rate, being 36 years old though he appeared to be only nine.

"I had hoped that he would get back in touch with me," said the salesgirl. "My name is Rina; 'Tonio knew me by the nickname Bree. Would you mind letting him know I asked about him?"

"I can do better than that," said Jake, pulling his communicator from his pocket. "Jake to CIC."

"Yeah, Jake?" Tommy responded over the communicator.

"Can you patch me through to 'Tonio, please?"

"Sure thing."

"Antonio Barnes here."

"'Tonio, this is Jake. I'm standing here talking with Bree, and she was wondering if you were going to get back in touch."

"I was just a little nervous at first," Antonio said. "But to tell the truth, I got so busy with Dr. McCoy pushing me through my Federation M.D. certification that I just plain forgot. I'd love to see her when she's free."

Allen spoke up. "If it's OK with you, 'Tonio, I was going to treat my two oldest to a meal out with me without the twins after we get through shopping. We'd be passing by the store here on our way home, and I could easily pick Rina up after her shift and bring her to the Short Compound, if you both want me to."

"Fine by me if Rina's willing."

"I'd love to, but are you sure that won't put you out?" she responded.

"Not at all; we'll be driving right by the mall anyway, and we live less than a mile from the Short Compound."

"It's a deal, then. Now, Xain, what sort of scenes were you looking for?"

---

Short Compound, some time later:

"Hey, honeybun, do you know what this meeting is about?" Travis asked Gabe.

"Not really," he replied. "All I know is that Dan asked to meet with Teri and the full Clan, or as many of us as can be got together. I have a hunch it's about the new guys from the intervention yesterday."

"That's right," said Dan, walking up to them. "I'd be glad to explain, but why don't we wait for everybody to get here, so I don't repeat myself a dozen times?"

Just then, Timmy and Ricky came out of the Rec. Room dressed in nothing but breechclouts, singing, "R-E-S, C-U-E, Rescue Aid So-ci-e-teeeee" at the top of their lungs. Ricky's eagle Duke, sitting on his perch, looked at them and raised the feathers above one eye in what appeared for all the world to be a Vulcan eyebrow-raise comment. He then flew down to the shoulder of Jed, still sitting hunched up in the recliner chair with a vacant expression on his face, and began to poke with his beak at Jed's ear. Jed failed to react.

"Whoa, fireballs!" said Cory. "You two been watching 'The Rescuers' again?"

"Yeah, Dad," said Timmy. "That's one kewl movie. They do a lot of what we do, huh?"

"That's right," said Cory with an affectionate smile at his first son. "Duke, stop pecking at Jed's ear, willya?"

"Duke says to tell ya," Ricky said with a serious expression, "that he's not pecking at his ear, he's *nuzzling* it."

A fleeting smile passed across Jed's face at the antics of the boys and that last comment. "That's the first response he's shown to anything in hours!," exclaimed Dan. "Any chance you can get that bird to play with him a little, Ricky, and try to bring him out of it?"

The eagle lifted his head and clucked at Ricky.

Ricky scowled in concentration for a moment, with a serious expression on his six-year-old face, and then said in a rush, "Duke's got a message from the Great Spirit. For Jed's healing, trust th' younger brother and 'Tonio's girlfriend."

"'Tonio doesn't have a girlfriend," Alec interjected. "I wonder if he meant Byron, since he's pretty much 'Tonio's boyfriend." Raising his voice, "Hey, Byron! C'mon over here by Jed, and see if you can get through to him."

Byron did as requested, balancing on the chair arm and talking quietly to Jed, who showed no reaction.

Kenny, Kevin, Xain, Deacon, Lawrence, and Jake walked in at that moment. "Sorry we got held up," Jake apologized. "We were just dropping a friend of 'Tonio's off over at Clan Medical to talk with him."

"No problem, Jake," Cory added. "We were just waiting on everyone to get here; except 'Tonio and Calen, you're about the last Clan members in Orlando to arrive. Doc Austin's treating Calen; he made the mistake of sitting right next to an air conditioner, and got shocky from hypothermia." Everyone looked sad at this, remembering Calen's sensitivity to cold from the torture his mother had put him through.

"We're meeting at Dan's request," Cory continued. "He has a favor to ask of the Clan, and I'll turn the floor over to him."

"Guys, I'm asking for your help," Dan began. "I've tried most of the non-aggressive ways of treating catatonic shock to help Jed, and nothing in what I've learned seems to be working. I've had other near-catatonic patients before, but Jed's the first time that the normal treatments, or at least the ones I'd consider using, won't help bring the patient out of it. So far as he reacts at all, both he and C.J. are reacting in ways characteristic of boys younger than they actually are, but that's a fairly normal response to traumatic shock. But Jed's catatonia is an extreme response.

"I've never given up on a patient yet," Dan continued. Cory and Kyle exchanged reminiscent smiles of the days Dan had spent with them at the Home before the Clan was formed. "...and I'm not going to start now. I'm a pretty competent professional, but I never claimed to have all the answers, and one of the things you learn in this job is to be ready to ask for help when you need it. That's what I'm doing."

"You want our help on a mental health issue?" Sean asked incredulously.

"Yes," Dan said. "The Clan has two assets I don't. First is your youth. In a case like this, youth isn't a liability but an asset. Us adults tend to get fixated on certain ways to do things - the technical term is 'canalization' - and kids tend not to do that. What we see as a problem, you see as a challenge.

"Second, there's a really impressive knowledge base here, when you look at the group of you. To give just two examples, it's a humbling experience for a trained professional like me to have an eight-year-old son who knows more about the human mind than I'll ever learn." Kyle blushed and grinned at the compliment. "And you Thompsons - have you noticed a lot of information requests from Vulcan on your Clan diplomatic terminal that have nothing to do with Allen's work?"

"Well, yeah," Kenny said. "I figured it was because of Xain."

"You're right," Dan responded. "But maybe not in the way you think. When Solak was here to treat Rory, he and I met to discuss how I could help Xain deal with the Earth-human half of his mental faculties. Solak had not been aware of how you boys telepathically equipped each other with all the languages any of you knew, and Xain's role in identifying the proper mnemo complexes to make that work. We wrote that up together for the Vulcan Academy of Sciences over the next few days, and as a result Xain is now recognized as one of the three foremost experts in the Federation on mnemo complexes."

"Way to go, T'hy'la!" Jake exclaimed with an affectionate hug of Xain, who was looking astounded at the news.

"I am honored by your recognition," Xain responded to Dan. "But it was not a complex task."

"Not for you," Dan responded. "But as Allen told me he pointed out to you, few Vulcans have specialized in studying mnemo complexes, and as far as I know, no Earth humans or other Federation races ever have. And you alone are the only person ever to have done a comparison of Vulcan and Earth-human complexes - granted, you needed it to understand your own mind. But it's led to some amazing new studies now underway on Vulcan, and your name is held in high repute at the Academy of Sciences.

"It's that sort of finding new ways of looking at things that I'm hoping to get from you young gentlemen for Jed. Remember when Cory and Sean developed two new enhancements for Starfleet the day they were first commissioned? You all have the talent of pulling off the unlikely and innovative, and thinking nothing of it.

"What we're faced with in trying to help Jed is that we're confronting something different. I've helped many of you deal with the mental and emotional problems resulting from traumatic abuse, right?" A roomful of nods signified agreement. "But Jed suddenly lost something that few of you had - a stable, happy family life. Seeing his parents killed and then feeling responsible for protecting his little brother has caused him to draw into himself and shut us out. And that is something that none of us has a lot of experience with."

"Should we be talking about him in front of him like this?" Cory asked concernedly.

"I think it's fine," Dan responded. "The human mind is very complex, and there's never any certainty of what will work. But my sense is that being included in this meeting, even though he's shutting us out, and hearing us all talking about how we can help him cope with what's made him shut down emotionally, will be nothing but beneficial. He needs, more than anything else, to know that people care, that losing his parents doesn't mean the end of his world. And seeing you all earnestly trying to help me help him may be good medicine in and of itself."

"Did you bring in Teri?" asked Aaron, with a warm smile towards his mother-in-spirit.

"Yes," said Dan. "I've seen her work her 'mother thing' on too many boys with near-miraculous results to have skipped that chance. But that didn't work either this time."

"How about empaths?" asked Justy. "Tyler can usually lift anyone's spirits."

Kyle grinned, "He sure does mine!"

"I thought of that too," Dan responded. "And our telepath brigade as well. Tyler can lift Jed's spirits briefly at a pretty heavy cost to himself, but it doesn't last any longer than it takes Tyler to do it. And while the telepaths can read him - that's how I know for sure what it is that's caused the catatonia, not that it wasn't my first guess anyway - nobody is able to 'reach in', so far as I understand what they do, and help him. 'Bastian got through once, but couldn't repeat it, and again it didn't last."

"What about the guidance that my munchkin little bro relayed from Duke?" Gabe asked.

Byron frowned. "I'm not getting anywhere, any more than the psychos did!"

"That's psychics!" Jamie called out with a mock-offended glare that was belied by his breaking into giggles.

"Ricky said 'little brother,'" Cory mused. "C.J., I know you're still pretty shook up, but are you willing to see if you can get through?"

"I'll try," C.J. said hesitantly, his eyes still red from crying. He walked over to stand next to his older brother's huddled form, and said, "Jed, brother, you gotta come back. I've lost Mom and Dad; I can't take it if I lose you too!" His eyes began to flood again.

Jed reached out, drew C.J. down in the chair next to him, and wrapped his arm around him tightly, but then went back to his wooden expression.

"I could try a mind-meld," Xain said hesitantly. "I have not yet mastered the full disciplines of doing so, but perhaps I may be able to help."

"As long as you don't bond us to him too!" Jake said with a flippancy belied by the fear in his eyes that he might lose the intimate bond that joined him to Xain.

"You need not fear," Xain said reassuringly. "He who is my father informed me that such a bonding as we formed is very rare, and is considered what might best be said in English as the working of Fate."

At that moment, an auburn-haired nine-year-old boy wearing a cut-down medical-white smock walked in hand-in-hand with a willowy 22-year-old blonde woman.

"Glad you could make it, Dr. Houser," said Cory with a grin.

"Not funny, Cory," Antonio responded with an air of mild irritation. "I feel about Doogie Houser jokes the way you feel about blond jokes. But I'd like you to meet an old friend. This is Rina, who was my friend Bree when we were kids together. Rina, these are my brothers in Clan Short. Give me a minute and I'll introduce them all individually."

"We're meeting with Dan about a problem with Jed here, who we just extracted yesterday," Cory said. "Maybe your medical expertise might be some help."

"What's wrong with him?" Rina asked, stepping forward with an air of concern on her face.

Jed's eyes grew large and his mouth opened. His rib-cracking embrace of C.J. loosened. Dan and the boys all looked on startledly at Jed's reaction.

"Toldja!" said Ricky smugly.

Sean cottoned to it first. "You guys know how, when Timmy or Ricky relays something from the birds, they say it in a hurry, all in one breath?" Nods from the assembled group. "Ricky didn't say 'girlfriend,' he said 'girl friend' - two words. Duke must have meant Rina!"

"But what on earth do you think that I can do, when you all failed so far?" she asked.

"I know who you are," said Jed suddenly. "You were there, once, in a bad dream I had long time ago, when I was real little. In my dream, you were a beautiful princess with special powers, an' you saved me from getting all cut up in a cave by a fierce bad troll."

Rina went and sat beside the two boys. She had no idea what Jed was talking about, but she took them both in her arms and said, "that's right, Sweetheart, and I'll make sure that troll will never, ever hurt you."

"Ceej too?"

"Yep, Ceej too, you betcha."

Dan was whispering to the others, "Well! What do you make of that - some sort of precognition, maybe? That sounds like a dream symbolizing almost exactly what actually happened."

"It is not uncommon among very young children to have dreams of a quasi-precognitive nature," Xain said. "They often outgrow it; however occasionally, it blossoms into a real talent for precognition. If that proves to be the case, we may be able to develop it for the arsenal of psychic talents that Clan Short has access to."

Dan said, "No doubt you have a point, Xain, but that will have to wait for now. The poor kid is only just starting to recover from severe emotional trauma."

"That is no doubt true, Dr. Dan," said Xain, with as close to remorse as a half-Vulcan-half human teenager could project. "I did not mean..."

"Is that what I got, that prec---whatever it was that man said? Is it catching?"

Rina said, "No, Sweetheart, it's not a sickness, I promise you. You're perfectly fine."

Jed's face took on the slightest semblance of a scowl. "D'you think maybe I could get something to eat, then? I'm really hungry. Last time I ate was lunch in the school cafeteria, an' that was gross!"

Teri spoke up. "Am I hearing that the last time these children had a decent meal was yesterday?! I suggest someone get them some food immediately!"

Ceej spoke up. "I ate supper last night, and breakf'st this mornin'. But my brother is the one that hasn't eaten since yesterday, 'cause he didn't feel like it." Ceej grinned. "I bet he feels like it now."

On that note, as if on cue, Helen came into the living room with a large tray piled high with assorted sandwiches and drinks and a pile of paper plates, and set it on the coffee table. Jed and C.J. fell to, and as soon as they had full plates balanced on their laps, the others helped themselves to a snack as well. "When you get thirty-odd boys together...." she said.

"And some of them are pretty odd," Eli threw in with a smirk.

"Behave yourself, Elijah!" She said with a grin. "Anyway, when you get this many boys together, I knew the need for food was sure to follow!"

---

A few minutes later, in the next room:

"That's amazing," Helen said. "Just seeing Rina brought him right out of it."

"Don't be too optimistic," Dan answered. "He identified her with the girl from his dream, and Xain may be right about it being symbolic precognition. But that boy's not healed yet, by a long way. There's something deep-seated to have brought on that degree of fear. But at least, with him having come out of his retreat from the world, we have a chance of getting a handle on what it is, and helping him cope with it.

"We'll need to figure out what to do with the two boys, too." Teri mused. "Maybe that reporter lady will have some idea of whether they have family that they would be happy with."

"I think Mikey is behind what's going on," Sean commented. "Having Jake and Xain pick today to visit Rina's store, and Rina seizing the chance to reconnect with 'Tonio, and then Rina being just what was needed to bring Jed out of it, has the series of improbable coincidences flavor of something my saintly big brother would come up with."

"You have a point there," Teri answered her son. "It does seem like one of the cockamamie schemes to help as many people as possible that he used to come up with."

A warm, comfortable feeling came over everyone in the room, and a chuckle was heard in the air, but there was no apparition.

"I suppose I'm not allowed to scold him for his little schemes any more, now that he's a certified saint," Teri grinned. She called D.J. on her communicator.

"D.J., it's Teri here. ... I told you never to call me 'gramma,' you little rascal." She grinned. "Would you ask Maureen about family for the boys?"

A few seconds passed. "OK, thanks."

She turned to the group. "Maureen just got the obituaries. George was an only child, parents dead. Rhonda's only brother was killed in the Gulf War. Christopher Sarles, her father, is alive and clear minded, but in a nursing home, partially paralyzed from a stroke. He could not possibly raise the boys."

"I think we're being led to place them with Rina," Cory said. "Like Sean said, this has all the marks of Mikey's doing."

---

To Be Continued